Thinking of Martha Stewart Gustavian Blue for your home’s exterior reno? Think again. Like that stamped cement driveway you saw on your trip to the northeast? Forget it. Husband travelling and you’re left to ensure the trash cans are tucked out of sight—pronto!—after the garbage truck sweeps by? Get moving. And don’t let me see those kids using sidewalk chalk out front!

Such is the life, apparently, of many a homeowner living within the confines, constraints and—some would say—convoluted constructs of an HOA, or homeowners’ association.

Used to be some odd symbol of “belonging”—or for some, status—to be a part of an HOA (no trailer trash here!) neighborhood. What with all the cookie cutter neatness, lack of individuality and security gates, it’s the facade of a picture perfect community. And a mere facade it’s seemingly become for some folks in Nevada—with a rather ugly behind-the-scenes picture.

An article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal shares what basically boils down to a case of schoolyard bullying—only the playground is now the development, and the bullies are the HOA boards. Those who feel they’ve been bullied (e.g., one homeowner was unjustly fined for the transgression of erecting a fence for which the HOA had previously approved the plans) have now joined voices, if not forces, to rally last Monday against HOA “bully boards”. They’re mad as hell and they want the folks in Carson City to do something about it. Read more: